An Isolated Administration

GUILLERMO I. MARTINEZ SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

March 20, 2003|GUILLERMO I. MARTINEZ SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

This is not the time for recriminations or what-ifs. This is not the time to speak of hyphenated Americans.

American troops -- all colors, all creeds and all ethnic groups -- are poised for war. American men and women are in harm's way and deserve our support, as does our commander in chief. Voicing displeasure or disagreement is a constitutional right. But at this point it does little more than lend comfort to our enemies.

History will judge this president on his actions; on whether his diplomatic effort was sincere or a sham; on whether this is the right war at the right time. It will also judge the United Nations for its relevance and France for its obstinacy. The world will never know if the United States would have obtained the nine of 15 votes it needed to pass a U.N. Security Council resolution giving Iraq an ultimatum or face war. The threat of a French veto stood in the way.

Chilean President Ricardo Lagos made it clear. A vote from the six undecided nations in the Security Council was irrelevant as long as France promised to veto any resolution with any form of an ultimatum to Iraq. President George W. Bush wanted the nations to "show their cards" -- until he realized it was pointless for the undecided nations to vote in favor of the American U.N. resolution if a French veto made their vote irrelevant.

Still, at the start, this is a much different war from the one fought on these same desert sands 12 years ago. Back then the world was united behind the United States and President George H.W. Bush built a formidable coalition of forces to throw Saddam Hussein's troops out of Kuwait. It was easier back then. Iraq had invaded a neighboring country without provocation and threatened even Saudi Arabia.

This time the United States has less foreign support, although this President Bush's "coalition of the willing" is bigger than his critics charge. The United States, Great Britain, Spain and Bulgaria are not alone. Most of the governments of Europe -- if not the people -- stand behind the United States. Australia will send troops; so will Poland. Many other countries throughout the world privately express their support for a war to overthrow a brutal dictator while publicly expressing concern about an imperial America that has so much power that it can exercise its every whim in the world.

Yet America is also more isolated today than it has been in many decades. Canada, our northern neighbor, is not sending troops. Mexico and Chile never supported the American U.N. resolution.

Less then two years ago, Vicente Fox was as close as any Mexican president has ever been to his American counterpart. His foreign minister, Jorge CastaM-qeda, a one-time leftist, gambled his political future on the close personal ties between the two rancher presidents and a new brotherhood that promised closer ties with our neighbors to the south.

Sept. 11, 2001, changed all that.

It made the United States wary of foreigners, all foreigners. It mandated a war on terrorism. And it pushed Bush and Fox apart. The promises made to work together to regularize the status of at least 3 million Mexican undocumented workers in the United States soon became impossible to keep. Attempts were made to continue conversations between Secretary of State Colin Powell and CastaM-qeda. Mexico hoped for the United States to find the time to address the migration problem.

The once-frequent meetings between U.S. and Mexican officials became less important. The presidents had left it to those in charge of foreign policy. And the experts on foreign relations left it to underlings.

In Mexico, CastaM-qeda was forced to resign. That was the only way that President Fox could avoid all the blame for a failed policy predicated on excellent relations with the United States. Two years after the two ranchers pledged that similar backgrounds made them ideal neighbors, Mexico refused to back the United States at the Security Council.

Government officials said repeatedly that Mexico would come on board. It never did.

Chile was the only other Western Hemisphere nation on the Security Council. It did not back the U.S. position. The lure of joining the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA) with the United States and Canada did not sway President Lagos.

At this time it is important to support President Bush and to look ahead. But the Bush administration cannot continue to neglect its hemispheric neighbors and then expect them to come to its side in times of need.

Guillermo I. MartM-mnez is a journalist in South Florida. His e-mail address is: Guimar123@aol.com.